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Dessert

Boiled Batter-pudding

A boiled pudding made from a batter of eggs, flour, milk, butter, baking powder, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Boiled Batter-pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grease a pudding mold or an earthen bowl with butter.

  2. In a bowl, beat the yolks of the eggs until creamy.

Make the batter

  1. Gradually mix in the flour, baking powder, and salt.

  2. Slowly add the milk and mix until smooth.

  3. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

  4. Pour the batter into the greased mold and seal it tightly.

  5. If using a bowl, do not fill it completely and cover it with a hot, floured cloth.

Boil and serve

  1. Place the mold in boiling water and boil for 2 hours.

  2. Serve the pudding immediately after cooking.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks add richness and creaminess, while whipped whites lighten the batter and help it rise.
All-purpose flour
Flour provides the starch that sets during cooking, giving the pudding its body and structure.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the pudding rise and become light in texture.
Milk
Adds liquid that hydrates the flour and gives the batter its smooth, tender texture.
Butter
Greases the mold so the cooked pudding releases cleanly.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites hold air only when whipped, and deflating them by stirring vigorously loses the lift they give. Fold gently so the batter keeps its airiness and rises as it cooks.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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